The mighty single board computer, the credit card sized Raspberry Pi or RBPi, as it is fondly called, is making waves for all the good reasons. Developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation as a low-cost, hands-on for children learning about the inner workings of a computer, this tiny SBC has caught the imagination of hobbyists all over the world. As a result, people have developed innumerable projects based on the RBPi, and the flood shows no signs of abating.
For those still not initiated in the RBPi bandwagon, it is best to buy the SBC as a bundle. The Pi-Fi bundle will include the RBPi, a preloaded 8GB SD card, a Wi-Fi dongle along with an instruction manual “Getting Started with Raspberry Pi.” Add an appropriate power supply, a USB keyboard, a mouse and a display and viola – you have a fully functional Linux computer, fully Wi-Fi enabled, capable of playing games, writing programs, streaming media and web browsing. The USB keyboard and mouse is not a strict requirement. You may also use a wireless keyboard and mouse with their USB receiver.
Other sundry things you may need are an HDMI cable and a USB A to micro cable. Make sure the power supply is capable of supplying 5V at 1.0A on its USB port, and you are good to go.
To start, plug in your keyboard, mouse and monitor to the RBPi. Next insert the SD card and plug in the power cable between the RBPi and the power supply. Hook up the power supply to the mains and switch it on. On the monitor screen, the NOOBs (New Out Of Box) interface from your SD card will prompt you with a choice of the operating system you would like to install. If you dislike the OS you just installed, shut down, switch off, and reboot but hold down the shift key while the RBPi reboots. You will be returned to the NOOBs interface to select a new OS.
The RBPi consists of a System on Chip, a Broadcom BCM2835 that has a CPU, a 700MHz ARM 1176jZF-S and a GPU, a Broadcom VideoCore IV that supports MPEG-2, OpenGL, h.264/MPEG-4 AVC and 1080P. For memory, the SBC has 512MB of RAM, and an onboard storage of MMC/SD/SDIO card slot, for which a minimum size of 4GB is recommended. The board consumes about 700mA or 3.5W of power at 5VDC via the Micro USB or the GPIO header.
The RBPi is capable of outputting video as composite RCA or HDMI, audio via 3.5mm jack or HDMI. It has two USB-2.0 ports and a Micro USB port, exclusively for power. An onboard Ethernet network is available – 10/100 RJ-45. There is support for low-level peripherals such as SPI bus (along with two chip selects at +3V3 and +5V), I2C bus, UART and 8x GPIO or General Purpose Interface Bus.
If you are not too keen on an Ethernet cord dangling from your RBPi, simply plug in the wireless USB adapter to get 802.11b/g/n networks. In case power flakiness is observed, go for a powered USB hub to plug in the adapter. Wi-Fi requires substantial amounts of power.
